Some time ago we were in NYC for a professional reason -- and extended our visit for a few days. My partner spoke at the unveiling go a historical marker on Bleecker Street honoring Elizabeth Blackwell. We went to the Sept 11 (aka 9/11) museum, which was incredibly hard. And, we ate.
All too often we ate at the hotel (HGU, which was delightful and where we had an undue quantity of alcohol our first night) or, for some reason, at the near ubiquitous Le Pain Quotidien. If I did hotel reviews, I would say: tiny room, terrific service, lovely place in a good location. If I did travel reviews, I would say: we took the train. It was wonderful.
This, though, is a food site.
So: a few sentences on the ubiquitous Le Pain Q -- and then on to the real star of the show.
On Le Pain Q: I first encountered this chain in DC and have eaten there with a friend as well as the Michigan Avenue one in Chicago. Yes, I joke about the Q and also about the word pain. (I do understand it is french.) In any case, now, I have eaten at several in Manhattan in addition. A few things: (a) the gluten free chocolate cookies are amazing; (b) I like the mint lemonade; and (c) both soup and sandwiches and avocado toasts are regularly tasty and at least appear to be healthy. At both of the places I visited in NYC, though, the service was horrific. Slow. Slow. Slow. I am occasionally patient. I know service workers are strained to the limit often. Having said that, this was simply terrible service -- caused, I assumed, by the shockingly few servers. They did what they could -- but might there have been additional strategies to try -- like saying -- on the way by - I actually do notice you sitting there and will get to you in due time . . . . rather than leaving me to wonder if I had somehow become invisible. Yes, I am no longer young Even so.
But, more seriously we had intended to go elsewhere, but needed lunch -- and so I picked Bouley at Home on line as meeting our need for something nearby and delightful. It met both criteria and was entertaining. I recommend it and this despite my having utterly confused Bouley with several other major chefs with names beginning with B. (Don't get me started on my poor memory these days.) Their website said "walk ins welcome" -- and we were. They barely made us wait and we sat at the counter where food was being prepared. Every single thing was dandy -- while we had intended a la carte, we went for the whole shebang and were glad we did. All in all delightful.
Details! As always, we ordered different things so that we would get a more full sense of the place and, frankly, because we have different palates!
First Course: I do not like oysters; my partner does. So, of course, she ordered them -- and I distinctly remember her saying: these are the best oysters ever. In addition to being fresh and wonderful as oysters per se, the preparation was , as she put it, "to die for." The Meyer lemon cloud was, in fact, a cloud. As for me, I got what appeared to be a more mundane option: carrot soup. for some reason, I expected it to be cold; it was not. It was, though, delightful - smooth, tasty, not too sweet, and quite carrot-y. It had exactly the right ginger-y-ness as well.
Second course: This is one place where we were unsure what to get for each of us. We both wanted the porcini flan, but my partner was concerned about the amount of truffle she wanted to eat (and as you will learn, went for truffles in another portion of the meal). So: I got the porcini flan, which was in a kind of black truffle dashi and crab. It was memorable and comes in second (I think) on the umami experiences of my life (after a mushroom soup the first time I went to Alinea). The crab was sweet (and there was a fair amount of it) , the dashi a tad gelatinous, and the flan (toward the bottom of the bowl) was both tasty and had a terrific mouth feel. My unnamed partner got the forager's treasure of wild mushrooms and toro. She loved it.
Onward we went to the third course where my partner went for the truffle ravioli and I had the beef cheeks with kale gnocchi. The beef was nicely braised and, while rich, was portioned well. The gnocchi were small (about the size of a pencil eraser?) and had a good toothsomeness. While they were black kale gnocchi, there was not a lot to the kale aspect and the server informed us that they were gluten free as they were made from squash! As for the ravioli: yes, I had one. And, yes, it was lovely.
Then the intermezzo: pineapple granite with exotic fruit sorbet and amaretto ice cream. This sounds like it would be huge and overwhelming. Instead, it did its job well -- lightening the meal, and preparing us for our final course.
Dessert! Sometimes in such tasting menus, dessert arrives when I am already approaching bloated. This was not so much the case here, as the pacing and portion size and richness were nicely balanced. I had: Salted Poached and Candy Lemon, Yogurt Mousse, Lemon Cream. It was perfect for the end of the meal -- light, not too dairy, and very lemony without being harsh. My partner had the Walnut Cake. She chose it because her mother had made a chiffon walnut cake across her childhood. While it was in no way similar to that cake, it was, she said, wonderful.
I have a vague memory that there was an amuse bouche at the outset and perhaps a treat at the end in the form of a chocolate, but I may be misremembering. I do know that when we left, we left with two bags with lemon tea cakes in them. We muted on those for a few days.
You may be wondering what we drank. I am too -- no memory at all survives. I know my partner had a white wine. As for me, who knows!
A few comments on the ambience and service: Bouley at Home is marketed as a place where you can learn. Around us were screens that cycled through various cooking demonstrations, all of which (I think) were aimed to show how to make wonderful food with things one could oneself purchase. Yes, your flatware was in a drawer in front of you (which was not always easy to get to and not always complete). Weird but not off putting for me, We watched a number of them and though I did not absorb them well, was impressed. Also: the service was both kind and not terrifically intrusive. Questions were addressed well and in an informative way. The place was not too noisy - and yet felt congenial! All in all, a nice place to spend part of an afternoon.
As for cost: it was lunch so not as high as their dinner, but it was not inexpensive. Wa sit worth it? Yes, And yes, the cost would have been lower if we had had less wine. The basic cost of the tasting menu (circa $75 each) seemed quite reasonable (especially for NYC).
Would I eat there again? I might -- though exploring more and more places in NYC seems fun -- and trying some of the hidden gems a priority.
Location: Bouley at Home, 31 West 21st Street.
For other reviews, try this piece on their opening in Fall 2017
